Rural California county faces levee dilemma

bout 400 homes and rich farmland in District-10 of Marysville, California risk being flooded should the levees protecting the area fail. The levees, stretching over twenty-eight miles, were built in the early 1900s. The area’s low population may be one reason why county officials have neglected making improvements to the levees in District-10. Local opponents of investment in shoring up the levees are worried that if the levees are improved and the area made safer, “It would open the door for more agribusiness type things, but it would also open the door for more subdivisions,” in the words of one of them.

a stretch of California levee in need of repair // Source: commons.wikimedia.org

About 400 homes and rich farmland in District-10 of Marysville, California risk being flooded should the levees protecting the area fail. The levees, stretching over twenty-eight miles, were built in the early 1900s. The area’s low population may be one reason why county officials have neglected making improvements to the levees in District-10.

The Appeal Democrat reports that that populated areas are given priority when it comes to flood protection. Former Yuba County supervisor Don Schrader, a resident of District-10 who recently announced his plan to run for a seat on the Board of Supervisors next year to represent the 5th District, is bringing attention to the twenty-eight miles of levee he says need improvement.

“Yuba County has ignored everything north of Marysville for years,” Schrader told the Appeal Democrat. “It’s an issue that is absolutely critical to Yuba County.”

Roughly forty District-10 farm-related businesses have a total value of $170 million, according to estimates by Agricultural Commissioner Luis Mendoza. Losing the agribusinesses to flooding would damage the county’s farming industry. “A levee break in District-10 would be devastating to the county agricultural economy,” said Schrader. “It would be an exorbitant cost to rebuild those businesses.”

Mendoza acknowledges the importance of keeping the agribusinesses in District-10. “It is important to do what we can to protect those facilities up there in the District-10 area,” he said. “There is a lot of commodities and a lot of shipping and drying up in that area.” The value of crops from District-10 averages $41 million annually. The figure increase substantially when shipping and drying facilities in the district are factored in.

Schrader is asking the County Board of Supervisors to fund an inundation study and a survey of the levees to determine their condition.

Supervisor Hall Stocker, representing District-10, is concerned that upgrading levees would open the door to residential development. “Agriculture is the number one economic asset in Yuba County and District-10 is a big part of that,” Stocker, who often opposes building subdivisions on farmland, told the Appeal Democrat. “It would open the door for more agribusiness type things, but it would also open the door for more subdivisions.”

District-10 carries a natural resources land-use designation, which requires that four out of five members of the Board of Supervisors vote to revoke it in order to allow residential development. Schrader does not anticipate that existing agribusinesses would sell their land for development if the levees were shored-up. “We are not trying to fix the levees so we can build homes,” he said. “We would be doing it so we can protect businesses.”

The NAS recently released this draft summary of a workshop: Engaging the Public in Critical Disaster Planning and Decision Making.  [ August 23, 2013]

NEW:  There was no podcast or audio recording of the event last night, but Prof. Galloway was kind enough to make his slides available.  I had asked the sponsors for some record of the event and they graciously and promptly replied.
Download the slide set here.

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If you live in the Washington DC area, this talk may be of interest. Dr. Galloway is a good speaker.

Wednesday, October 9, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Is Community Resilience Real or Fiction?

Everyone has a story to tell about their experience of a natural or human-made disaster. Why do some communities bounce back and others do not? Is building community resilience possible or just wishful thinking? Mix it up with disaster expert Gerald Galloway (University of Maryland) and join a lively discussion about community resilience. No preparation or expertise required—bring your questions and ideas!

The study, which is 43 pages, is titled:At the Crossroads of Long-Term Recovery: Joplin, Missouri Six Months after the May 22, 2011 Tornado. The authors are David M. Abramson and Derrin Culp, at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Earth Institute l Columbia University, New York. (Release date 15 September 2013). Part of the abstract follows:

* * *  the tornado displaced one third of the city’s population. They observed a favorable foundation for recovery, including limited physical damage to critical infrastructure or the city government’s fiscal base, minimal political conflict over the direction and control of recovery, a history of prior collaborative efforts across diverse sectors, and a highly involved and visible governor. The study documents several quick critical decisions that set a positive recovery trajectory and a FEMA-supported long-term recovery planning process. It notes that six months after the tornado, Joplin’s leadership faced hard decisions about how to apply federal and state redevelopment support and private philanthropic donations, deal with long-term community mental health issues, maintain a high level of citizen involvement, and sustain the cooperative atmosphere that had defined the first six months of recovery.

Thanks to Laurie Johnson for sending me the link.  In her cover note Laure commented:

Amongst the valuable information that they distilled from their extensive interview efforts, is an acknowledgment that recovery planning (and the formation of the Citizens Advisory Recovery Team (“CART”) within two weeks of the tornado, and which received technical, logistical and operational support from FEMA) is one of four critical actions and accomplishments that they conclude oriented Joplin towards a positive recovery trajectory.

It’s also a nice read.

I have not read it all fully, but I would like to highlight it as a useful model of a recovery case study. Recently, I have been discussing what constitutes a case study with several writers of government guidance and I recommend this example.

The Dynamics of Disaster, by Susan W. Kieffer. Norton, 2014. Hardcover, 274 pp. List price: $25.95

Since the author is a geologist, it is not surprising that this book deals with geological and meteorological hazards and disasters. The book primarily deals with natural hazards and disasters and not with the emergency management of disaster events. The chapter titles are as follows:

          Geologic Consent – do we have it or not?
Dynamics and Disasters
Terra Isn’t Firma
The Flying Carpet of ELM
The day the Mountain Blew
The Power of Water: tsunamis
Rogue Waves, Stormy Weather
Rivers in the Sky and
Water Water Everywhere … or not a drop to drink

The author has a conversational writing style and she provides useful and understandable accounts of the major types of natural hazards to those of us without formal training in the hard sciences.

The first eight chapters deal with the hazards phenomena, and the final chapter outlines how we might better prepare for and in cases prevent future natural disasters.  As others have done she suggests that the key to disaster preparedness and prevention is communication and communication among scientists and engineers together with policy makers and public sector decision makers. A unique recommendation is her call for the creation of an organization that would function like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention but focus on disasters. And she emphasizes the important of education the public and discusses how that might be done.

About the author: She is a professor emerita of geology at the Univ of IL and a recipient of the Mac Arthur foundation grant.  She hosts a blog call Geology in Motion.

In short, this book would be a useful addition to one’s library, understanding that it deals entirely with natural disasters and features hazards descriptions and analyses and not emergency management processes.

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Reviewed by Claire B. Rubin, alias The Diva.